And just funds itself off Ad revenue alone and maybe a Paetron account.
I'm pretty sure the majority of people paying for subscriptions to Crunchyroll and HIDIVE only care about one of the bonuses that gives them, not watching the Ads. But I'm fine with the Ads. And yet these sites feel like they have to offer (or rather restrict) more, "people can't really be paying 5-10 dollars a month just to skip ads?" they must think. Well plenty are doing it just because they morally want to support the industry.
The lack of ads are not the reason people go to illegal sites, in their own way their ads are kinda worse, with Pop Ups that undo my Full Screen mode every-time I try to pause it and then it didn't even pause. It's mostly that the pirates have a wider selection that leads people there.
I'm not gonna pay for the highest resolution version, I'd just buy the Blu Ray for that, my Laptop can't support HD anyway.
The only thing that is really incentivizing me to consider getting a paid Subscription to either of those sites or similar ones is how often the Dub isn't available for the Ad supported Free Viewing.
If anything it should be the other way around, the obsessives who are willing to throw away as much money as possible on their Anime Hobby tend to include most of the Sub only Elitists. So make them pay extra.
Part of the purpose of Dubs is being the more accessible experience for new and potential future Western fans. And that's precisely why they should be more easily available, they should be as simple as me giving someone a link. Instead a few Dubs air on Adult Swim, but what can only be watched legally on the FUNimation website they won't even let a non-Premium member try the first episode.
I know they are charging more for Dubs because technically that costs the localizers more to make, they have to pay the Voice Actors and so on. But that's how marketing is supposed to work, you spend money on stuff given away for free to incentivize people to buy the full product. And it's not like Dub actors are getting paid that much anyway, it's the Seiyu in Japan who are getting Rich off doing it, so it should be their performances that cost more to listen to.
Occasionally on Reddit I've gotten comments from people who don't believe me that newbies still won't watch Subs. These people must live in some unique circles. I showed Higurashi to my brother last October, since he's a Horror fan and it's the best Horror Anime. I started with the Sub on HIDIVE since it's Dub isn't highly regarded (I'm relatively fine with it) and he didn't like needing to read to follow what was going on. So the rest we watched Dubbed.
Being as willing to pay for the Dubs as I am however is rare. Most who prefer Dubs as much as I do are casuals who aren't gonna subscribe to a specifically Anime web site.
But no, my ultimate goal is not making people pay more for Subs. What I'm saying is watching Anime online should be as free and easy as watching it on Cable would be.
As I've said before, my descent into full Otakudom was facilitated my
Hulu including Dubs in their ad supported Free viewing back in
2014-2016. But then they stopped.
So either stop offering the paid service at all, or come up with incentives for it that don't render the point of Dubs useless. If you really need to offer more then just no Ads and higher resolution. Maybe put up DVD bonus feature type stuff like audio commentary tracks, or interviews.
Don't think that destroys the incentive to buy the Blu Rays, for me having it on home media is the preferred experience simply because I don't need to depend on my internet connection. And then plenty will buy them just to collect them. The reason Anime DVDs aren't selling enough is because they're ridiculously over priced.
And if it's really that important to need to make more money off the Dubs, give them more ads.
They should be able to charge more for Dub ad slots because they reach a wider audience. But sadly that doesn't seem to be how internet ad revenue works.
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